Is It Just Me…
Last month I asked if anyone had any special memories of their past to pass them on to me and I’d post them. I was surprised how many responses I received. I have compiled some of mine as well as those others sent in. Some of them go back 20 years. Here they are:
Remember going to the corner grocery store with a nickel and walking out with a small bag with lots of candy in it? Cherry Blossom’s, Cracker Jacks and the great Canadian confection Lucky Elephant Pink Candy Popcorn, wax lips, Macintosh Toffee, Thrills chewing gum, Lic-M-Aid Fun Dip and mint leaves. Lest we forget Blackballs and Jawbreakers. How about Bazooka Bubble Gum or those chewy white nougat bars?
Then there was the “Ten O’clock Action Hour” on CJAY TV. Remember this jingle? “Brylcreem – A Little Dab’ll Do Ya! Brylcreem! You’ll look so debonair. Brylcreem! The gals’ll all pursue ya; they’ll love to run their fingers through your hair”. Thanks to G. Whitehill for those and many others.
Remember the excitement of getting your first YoYo and having a sore, purple finger at the end of the day from trying to “walk the dog”? Remember the sensation of getting water up your nose after some dork pushed you into a swimming pool? Or walking barefoot at a farm and the feeling of mud squishing between your toes … at least you hoped it was mud.
Remember when dads didn’t wear blue jeans? Pedal pushers, pedal cars and Davey Crocket hats? Did you see Wyatt Earp at the Shrine Circus? Or the Rifleman? Dennis the Menace was there once, too.
There was The Friendly Giant (Rusty and Jerome), Romper Room with Miss Roma (from Winnipeg) with her magic mirror? Did she ever see you? Speaking of television, remember The Flying Doctor, Sky King, Rescue 8, Man and the Challenge, T.H.E. Cat, Top Cat and Cannonball?
Remember having the flu and the smell of Pine Sol in a bucket beside your bed? Did your mother crush up an Aspirin and mix it with jam to make it taste better? Did she give you a glass of warm, flat Ginger Ale to make you feel better? Did it? Maybe you watched Treasure Trackdown with Al Johnson.
Pudding … any flavour … before it was instant. Home-made tapioca and rice pudding with cinnamon. Red River cereal, Ovaltine, Postum, Cream of Wheat, Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat. And Jell-O with the flavour bud. Did you ever make a Dagwood sandwich?
D. Kemp reminded me of our old telephone exchanges. I had Spruce, you might have had Sunset, Justice, Lennox, Globe or Grover. Then there was Church, Birch, Castle, Chapel, Hudson and Edison. Add to that, Turner, Vernon and Cedar. Seems to me if you lived downtown or called a business in that part of town, you dialled Whitehall.
Still … that was yesterday. Today is almost over and tomorrow another day. But, there will never be another day quite like yesterday … will there?
Call me sometime. The number is Spruce 57856. Or, it was 45 years ago.